If quality of life is an important recreation outcome, then municipal parks and
recreation management's efforts have to change because:·
Over one-third of all the little kids in schools will be diabetic in their lifetime if
the trends we are looking at continue. The average loss of life is about 15 years,
and there is an average reduction in quality oflife by about 20 years (Jackson,
2007).
This thesis is about municipal parks and recreation, an agency that controls and limits
physical activity opportunity. It is also about active living; from an ecological
perspective, a multi-disciplinary approach to incorporate physical activity into more
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people's daily lives. In particular, this thesis examines one case --'. the Donutville Case - .
with the intent of providing an explanation of how municipal parks and recreation can
advance its management efforts to improve health outcomes of people suffering from
daily physical activity deficits. More specifically, how can the tension between external
and internal environments to municipal parks and recreation be better balanced to affect
the change needed?
Given that changing the current social reality is through making decisions,
decision-making functions connected with systems theory helps identify how recreation
authorities can more effectively influence environmental physical activity determinants. ,
Sallis et al.' (2006) ·social ecological model provides the a priori focus on active living
decision-making. An integrated analogous emerging logic model is developed and
presented as an efficacious strategy for how municipal parks and recreation decisionmakers
can affect change.
Keywords: physical activity, benefits outcomes, healthy livable community, quality of
life, systems thinking, social ecological model, deci~ion-making, logic modeling,
municipal parks and recreation, active living.